Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information Leadership, Fifth Edition

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Management Communication Quarterly
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Castor, T. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Constructing Social Reality in Organizational Decision Making

Account Vocabularies in a Diversity Discussion

Theresa R. Castor

University of Wisconsin-Parkside, castor{at}uwp.edu

Communication during organizational decision making has often been treated as information exchange, and when social constructionist orientations have been assumed, these have focused on communication related to decision making rather than on talk during decision-making interactions. Shotter’s rhetorical-responsive social constructionist approach is applied to analyzing a faculty senate’s discussion on whether or not to implement a culture and ethnic diversity requirement. This study examines decision-making talk and how, during decision making, participants socially construct a diversity requirement. The vocabularies of diversity and requirement function to define the resolution and allow faculty to demonstrate accountability in different ways. The meanings of these vocabularies are discursively negotiated during decision making; this process reveals competing vocabularies and ambiguity. The conflict over the diversity requirement was resolved through a substitute resolution that reaffirmed the nature of the university as an institutional organization through the vocabulary of good faith. This study shows how decision-making talk constitutes organizations.

Key Words: decision making • social constructionism • diversity • university

Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4, 479-508 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0893318904273689
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Management InquiryHome page
P. Bradshaw and C. Fredette
Academic Governance of Universities: Reflections of a Senate Chair on Moving From Theory to Practice and Back
Journal of Management Inquiry, June 1, 2009; 18(2): 123 - 133.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Discourse StudiesHome page
T. Castor
`It's just a process': questioning in the construction of a university crisis
Discourse Studies, April 1, 2009; 11(2): 179 - 197.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Management Communication QuarterlyHome page
A. Whittle, F. Mueller, and A. Mangan
In Search of Subtlety: Discursive Devices and Rhetorical Competence
Management Communication Quarterly, August 1, 2008; 22(1): 99 - 122.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Business CommunicationHome page
T. Castor
Language Use During School Board Meetings: Understanding Controversies of and About Communication
Journal of Business Communication, April 1, 2007; 44(2): 111 - 136.
[Abstract] [PDF]